The Fox and The Cherry Blossom
by TheMozar
Summary: After the war is over everyone is trying to pick there life back up. Naruto is training to be hokage and dealing with how different everything is now and his feelings on love. Sakura is the head Medic at the Konoha hospital. She is trying to find herself again amidst the chaos which is love. This is my personal opinion on how things would go after the war. NaruSaku. M for later
1. Chapter 1

Naruto's Pov

The wind was blowing as if it had a mind of its own, and it was angry. The sun was bright that day in the Konoha, but it wasn't a happy day. Two shinobi were standing in the forest on the outskirts of the Hidden Leaf Village and were standing a few feet apart facing each other.

He was a mix of emotions standing in front of his brother, his eternal rival. Sasuke.

Naruto reached up and scratched the back of his head and laughed, "I think this is the first time you're leaving and im not trying to stop you."

Sasukes face showed the faintest trace of a smirk and looked up to the sky, closed his eyes and actually smiled, "I wish Itachi could see me now, leaving the hidden leaf to protect it. Just like him. "

He looked back down at Naruto and said, "You know I have to leave. I'm the only one that has this eye. Im the only that can see the traces and potential movements of this enemy." He faltered as he looked like he wanted to say more. He looked away.

Naruto knew now that to get things out of Sasuke you had to stay quiet and let him advance the conversation. When the war was done he came back to the village. After helping win the war and save the world he was pardoned for his crimes. It had been months since they had been back and Sasuke just didn't feel right living here, not that soon, not after everything that happened and the knowledge that he knew. He felt like he needed to do this, to repint for the sins and all the damage he caused.

 _He will get through this, I know it._ He thought. He truly believed that his friend would beat his demons one day, and Naruto knew this journey was a big part of him finding himself again.

He had confessed all of this to Naruto a few weeks ago. The first step of his plan to undo his wrongs was not getting his arm back. Along with the First Hokages cells Tsunade and Sakura had created a prosthetic arm for Naruto, and Sasuke had declined. Nobody could convince him otherwise. It was something he thought he had to do.

Narutos ponderings were halted by Sasuke holding out his one arm to shake his hand.

"This is goodbye. Thank you, for everything. I would have never seen the light without you intervening when you did."

Naruto just smiled. Nothing needed to be said, and shook his hand, grabbed something from behind and placed it in Sasuke's hand. He looked stunned. In his hand was the hiate with the hidden leaf that was scratched out. His old headband. He stared at it for a good while and then slid it in his pack.

He turned to leave and halted, he looked back over his shoulder to look at Naruto.

"Tell her I'm sorry, it was never meant to be." He whispered, then leaped off into the trees and was gone.

Naruto was left standing there. Staring into space where his friend had left, his black cloak with red flames billowing in the wind.

He sighed and turned to head home. Even from as far away as he was he could feel the two chakra signatures from the other members of team seven close to the gate.

Sakura's Pov

Fall had always been her favorite season, the leaves falling from the trees and the chilly air. The cold had nothing to do with why she had her arms wrapped tightly around her waist, or the tears slipping from her eyes, no. Today Sasuke was leaving. The person that she had loved or thought she loved since a girl, was leaving. The problem was that for so long she had this image of what her future would hold, and he was always in it. In her dreams of what could be, they would have their own family and her life would be happy.

Those dreams were swiped away by Sasuke himself months ago when he had tried to kill her under the bridge after slaying Danzo. She could still remember his eyes. There was madness in them that day, but she forged ahead and thought that she could fix him no matter how far he had fallen.

She came to a horrible realization. Her eyes wide, she buried her face in her arms and started to sob.

 _He would have actually killed me there if Naruto hadn't saved me. I wouldn't be here crying over him. My life would have been over right there, no future, no ki.._ she couldn't finish the thought. Sasuke was gonna stab her in the back, she couldn't react fast enough and all she remembered was that she somehow ended up in Naruto's arm. Her life would be over. Shortly after that had been when she realized she wasn't in love with him anymore and the war was starting so she had to place her feelings aside. Since the war had been over for months now and everything was getting back to normal, she had time to actually evaluate her feelings. She still loved him, as a brother, as a teammate and as a friend but there was just nothing left in that way. Not after everything he did to her.

A squirrel leaping on the bench she was on broke her from her thoughts. Her hands came up and used her coat to wipe away her tears. She looked up at the sky and realized that she had been sitting there for over an hour. She was supposed to meet Kakashi at the gates with Naruto to see Sasuke off soon. As much as she didn't want to do this she had to.

She had gotten out of work early and decided to take a walk in the park that was nearby the hospital. That's how she had ended up sitting with her thoughts for so long. As she was walking her mind went to the village and how everything was good except for her current situation. Her days were busy now as the head medic of Konoha. Tsunade was still the Hokage, but everyone knew she was just bidding her time until Naruto was ready. Naruto. She caught herself thinking of him a lot recently. He had changed so much from that loud mouth kid that wouldn't shutup about becoming Hokage, he had proved everybody wrong. He was so close to his dream. The dream everyone always laughed at him for. Naruto the class clown had become the most powerful shinobi in the world.

Naruto's hordes of girls chasing him were proof that he hadn't only changed inwardly. The man was a spitting image of his father, with his long, unruly blonde hair and crystal blue eyes. The distinguishing feature between them was naruto's whiskers, in that, he was alone.

The gate was just up ahead and Sakura didn't see anybody. She walked up and only saw the two guards that were on duty.

"Sakura." Kakashi said casually as he was sitting on a limb of a tree just outside the gate with his book open in his hand. He dropped down gracefully, as only a ninja could. A lethal one at that.

She couldn't read his eye's. It was still weird to her looking at him with one eye not uncovered.

Sakura put her hands on her hips, "Where are those two boneheads?" she said loudly.

Kakashi looked away and sighed. As soon as she was about to ask whats wrong she felt Naruto's chakra past the gate coming towards them. It was impossible not to feel his when he wasn't hiding it, his was like a raging inferno, nobody else's compared.

They both looked up and watched as Naruto flew out of the tree line and landed a few feet away. She hadn't seen him in a few weeks. He had just got back from a mission when Sasuke had told them he was leaving.

He walked straight up to her. Blue met green. _He is nervous about something_ she thought. He was being hesitant about something.

"Naruto, are you gonna tell me what you have to say or am I gonna have to beat it out of you." As her fists tightened at her sides. She was not in the mood to have her emotions played with.

"I'm so sorry Sakura. He's gone."


	2. Chapter 2

_First off I want to say thank you to all the Reviewers. It means a lot to hear your opinion. This is my first ever fanfic.I will be writing more fanfics in the Narutoverse soon so stay tuned. As ive said before, this is just my opinion on what would happen with everybody after the war. I hope you like this one, it's a bit longer. I definently have a plan on where this is going. Im also gonna explore Naruto's family too. Sometimes I don't think its talked about enough. Anyways, enough of me rambling, enjoy! Ps. Sorry for any misspellings or grammer, usually when im done I just skim and then upload, LOL._

 **Naruto's Pov**

Naruto was walking home after eating ichirakus alone. He had needed time to think after all of the events that had happened today. Sasuke had left and didn't say goodbye to Kakashi or Sakura. She hadn't taken it well. When he told her, there was none of her ferocious anger which he had come to love and expect from her. She had simply looked him in the eyes and smiled. Pain. That was all he saw in those broken green pools. In his honest opinion they were the greenest eyes he had ever seen. The most beautiful eyes in the world, and at that moment they were filled with so much sorrow that he physically flinched.

Sakura had then dropped her gaze and simply turned and walked away. He wanted to say something; he wanted to yell at her. He wanted to rush to her and take her in his arms, but he couldn't do that. Not now. He knew that she needed to sort this out on her own. She was one of the strongest people he knew, he was so proud of who she had become.

He found himself walking through the village. His feet taking him to a spot he visited a lot. When the village was reconstructed it was only right that a place was dedicated to Jiraiya. His life had touched many, including his. He was a father to him. There was a small pond in one of the parks and in the middle surrounded by toads was a 10 foot tall statue of the toad sage himself, smiling.

Naruto walked up and sat down on a bench in front of the memorial. It was a form of therapy for him to come and talk to the statue. He looked up into the face of the old man. _Pervy sage._ He thought with a knot in his throat. He glanced down and laughed. Tears leaking down his face. He let his face look up into the sunset. _If you could only see me now, I made it. We saved the world. I just wish you were here._ He was crying out right now. His shoulders were shaking.

"Sasuke left today, I'm at peace with him leaving. I feel like he needs to do it for himself." Naruto came and talked to him often, as if he was sitting here in front of him, breathing. "Sakura is devasted. Like I knew she would be. That bastard." He snapped a twig in his hands. His fingers running through his long hair, they took his hiate off his forehead. Without it on now his hair was even more unruly that it used to be. The blonde locks went down to his shoulders. He stood up and threw a rock angrily into the pond.

"Sometimes it's like he has no empathy at all!" he yelled. "I just don't get it, you have the perfect girl in front of you, and there is not even a goodbye when you're leaving for possibly years? The girl I'm madly in love with." He whispered.

His affection for the pink haired beauty hadn't faded at all since the war. Yes, there had been a few women that had caught his eye, for a night. He had some brief flings with girls in the village, but at the end of the day they were nothing else but that, a one night stand. She was the one he wanted to come home too. There had been some nights when he went out to the bars with the boys and found himself brooding over her. When he was supposed to be having fun. Sakura was still the woman he was in love with. He just couldn't tell her. Not while she was still in love with Sasuke. He had a conversation with him about Sakura before he left. Sasuke had told him that he loved her as a friend but there was nothing past that, urging him to confess his feelings to her. Naruto had shrugged it off. As of late though it was hard for him to contain his feelings around her. They were amplified when she was around. His heart was sent racing when he got a glimpse of pink. He was going crazy. As far as he knew she had never dated or went out with anyone. She was always so busy at the hospital.

Naruto was actually glad that Tsunade had been working him into the ground. He had studied more scrolls the last month than he had in his whole life. Nobody knew it yet but he was also working on a secret project of his. Naruto cheered up thinking about the jutsu he was learning. The legendary flying thunder god technique. He was close to mastering it.

When the war was over his parentage had been released to the public, which exploded his reputation even more. He had inherited a small fortune from his parents, which allowed him to buy his own place. A box of items from them was also passed down to him. There wasn't that many items but he cherished them all. One of those items was the scroll for the flying thunder god technique. One of the most legendary jutsu's ever. That jutsu had born his father's nickname, Konoha's Yellow Flash. Tsunade said that it was sealed away but they had made an exception, because it was Minato's son.

Naruto didn't even realize that it was almost completely dark outside. He got up and said his goodbyes to Jiraiya. His memory living on. He had made up his mind.

 _I need to make sure she is okay. He thought._

 **Sakura's Pov**

Sakura turned away from him. She couldn't bare to look into those blue orbs, they cared too much. So she just walked away. The walk to her place was hazy. She opened her door and walked in. She was crying, hard. Times like this made her glad she had her own place with Ino, she couldn't stand going home like this. It was a good time for Ino not to be home.

Smothering in your own depression and sadness was an activity best done alone. The door shut and she leaned her forehead on the door and started sobbing.

 _Im not in love with him anymore she thought._ She was crying for her younger self. For all the wasted years of her love. She had wasted so much time and love on Sasuke and now he is gone. She had gotten over her love for that man. She was truly sad he was leaving, just as they were on the brink of finally having team 7 back again. He leaves.

 _He was always a half step away from everybody. Even Naruto couldn't get him to stay,_ she thought. She changed her mind and opened the door open and walked out.

The night was lovely. The wind was blowing just enough to make it chilly. She stepped out and took off without a destination. Her thoughts slowly gaining positivity. There was nothing a lovely walk through Konoha at night couldn't fix.

The village truly was alive at night. All the night owls were out and having fun. There were lots to do entertainment wise in the city now. After the war was over, and peace reigned, things were lighter. People wanted to have fun again and live. There was lots of bars now. You could walk into any one at this time and it would be live with people having fun and dancing. _It's nice to see people living again_ she thought. The war had been so cruel, with so many shinobi deaths. When it was over, everybody seemed more alive and happy. A weight had been lifted off the world,because the war, although terrible, had made peace possible. She was so deep in thought, when she came around a corner; she walked right into somebody, and hit her head.

"Oh my gosh, im so sorr- Naruto?!" she shrieked. "What are you doing, trying to kill me?! Running around like an idiot." She muttered. Naruto laughed, eyes dancing with humor. She blushed, for some reason.

His hands went up and started scratching the back of his head, "Sorry, Sakura-chan." He grinned, "I was just on my way to see if you wanted to catch up on things. I know today hasn't been the greatest and well ya know, we haven't talked in a few weeks. Tea at your place?" he asked sincerely.

She looked at him and realized how much he had changed. He was so sure of himself. Everything he did, it was like he had practiced a thousand times in his head before, but that was the magic of Naruto. He made everything look easy. Like right now, standing in the moonlight with his cloak billowing in the breeze. He was her best friend, but she was also a woman. She understood why on top of everything else, why he had a group of girls fawning over him at all times. He was Gorgeous, and she meant that. Long blond hair and striking blue eyes. The years had made him taller as well; she had to look up quite a bit when she was looking into his eyes.

 _Where are my thoughts going right now?_ She thought with a panic. She blushed again. Then proceeded to punch Naruto a good ten feet away. He landed and groaned.

"Hey what was that for..?" he said out of the corner of his mouth.

 _Oops._ "You deserved that for running into me. Now are we going to my place or not?" she asked with a smirk looking down at him.

He pushed himself off the ground, abd walked up in front of her. Too close. Blue met green again, he had got serious. "I'm sorry, I just realized that I have a scroll to finish and have to be with Tsunade early in the morning for an important diplomatic lesson." He laughed and continued, "I guess you throwing me to the ground was what It took for me to remember. What would I do without you Sakura-chan?"

He said that last part so genuinely it tugged at her heart. He didn't even have to try.

Naruto took a step closer, and put a finger under her chin. Her heart was beating out of her chest. She was about to punch his lights out again when she felt his lips, barely touch her forehead. Naruto had just kissed her. He started to walk off and then looked over his shoulder and smiled a dangerous smile. One that she didn't know Naruto had. Then he was gone and she was left standing, holding her hand over where his lips had been. The only thought in her mind was curiosity about what it would feel like to kiss him.


End file.
